Ideology vs. competency

Sen. Bob Bennett, RINO-Utah (I kid! I kid!), came by for a visit to the Herald's editorial board on Monday.

While he focused mostly on his doomed alternative health care reform bill, he did answer a question about why he voted against now-Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor.

Bennett said that in the good ol' days (my words) he would have voted for Sotomayor. Nearly two decades ago he said that senators voted on competency, not ideology, and let the dice fall where they may. (Clarence Thomas would have a thing or two to say about that.)

Now, Bennett says, you vote on ideology because if you don't then the other side's people get on the bench and yours don't. He (and several other senators) laid their decisions at the feet of President Obama, who said as a senator during the Roberts and Alito hearings that he was voting on ideological grounds rather than based on competency.

I asked if that just turns into a race to the bottom in a system that has historically required compromise, leverage and good will. "You run that risk," Bennett nodded.

What's perhaps most interesting about Sotomayor is that the No. 1 issue with the Republican constituency is where a nominee stands on abortion. Sotomayor ably and predictably dodged the question during hearings, but the New York Times points out that she's never really been tested on the issue.

And the kicker: her decisions on peripheral cases show that she's sided, at least to some degree, with the anti-abortion side.

In a time when the GOP is in the wilderness, it seems they not only missed a chance to gain some leverage, but they pissed off a president with a huge majority in Congress by taking the ideological road and blaming it on him.

Of course, I'm sure Bennett's decision had nothing to do with his re-election campaign this year that is facing spirited opposition from multiple candidates from within his own party — because he's not ideological enough.

Monday Cup o' Joe

• We're 60 minutes into the workweek and you're already looking for inspiration to make it through the next 2,340 minutes. Look no further than the Salt Lake Tribune's write-up on Sen. Dan Liljenquist who survived a plane crash a year ago. Now get back to work!

• The Great Recession = Mayhap selling nearly pure, extremely hard form of carbon, naturally crystallized in the isometric system ain't gonna work.

• Tired of plane crashes and bad economic news? Pictures of kids!

• I wrote a story about Karl Rove coming to Utah County for the party's fundraiser on Saturday, but since the Herald and technology go together like cats and waterboarding, it's temporarily unavailable. Here it is.

And if none of that interests you, remember that everyone kills Hitler on their first trip.

Yeah, but aren't they cursed now or something?

Oh KSL classified ads, is there anything you can't do?

It starts out innocently enough:

Beautiful Size 6.5 - 7.Two carat diamond ring set with 4 princess cut diamonds on the engagement ring set in platinum wide band, and the wedding band is a simple line of small round diamonds.

And then, the sucker punch:

This ring came with a romantic proposal, then following, 8 years of lies and deceit. Which I would trade for 8 root canals with no anesthesia!Apparently "Eternity" is just a perfume, and I think it STINKS. Ultimately he lost 3 gorgeous kids and the best thing that ever happened to him!Win-Win. YOU get a ring-set at a great price and I got rid of the job-less cheat!When you call, please refer to this ad as the "Gladys, Cassy, Hilary, Brenda and Secretary" ad, because those are the women he left me and his kids for.

How do you add comment to that? You don't. Good day, sir.

The laws of Unintended Consequences

So I've been working on a story for a week about county governments backing a law that has boomeranged on them. It's complex to the point of mind-numbing and the excitement factor registers somewhere on the scale with Full House reruns. (Look it up, you damn kids. And get off my lawn!)

But we're talking about MILLIONS OF DOLLARS. In a recession. So I fired up the grinder and went to work on it. It was great fun for me and a source of great despair for my editors and most likely the Herald's readers.

I love finding stuff like this. A few more:

• Ethics reform does nothing of the sort.

• Ethics reform (a different bill) does much, much more than expected.

Speaking of well-intentioned screw-ups, City Editor Logan Molyneux brings this one to my attention from a story in the Herald about an Alpine planning commission meeting. City ordinance states that:

“The activities of the home occupation shall not involve the use of hazardous materials or chemicals in amounts that will increase the hazard of fire explosion or safety to the structure or occupants of the dwelling or adjacent dwellings.”

English schoolmarms and chumps who read legalese all day long will notice that the ordinance bars the use of hazardous stuff "in amounts that will increase the ... safety to the structure ..."

Hilarious.

Monday Cup o' Joe

• LDS missionaries miss the Census county — again. I link to the Trib story for the awesome mug shot of Rep. Rob Bishop, who looks like a cat ate his pancakes. But before you scream "discrimination!" check out the money quote:

The Bureau printed 520,000 questionnaires and created a Web site for those who preferred to fill out the form online. But only 5,400 people responded, despite a publicity campaign that included giving forms to Mormon mission presidents.

Not much room to complain if the boys in white shirts and ties can't get their act together.

• The Herald's Heidi Toth takes a swing at reporting the health care debate. This sums it up nicely:

Penrod is in his 60s, though not yet old enough for Medicare, and self-employed. He pays for his own high-deductible insurance and also foots the bills for doctor and dentist visits and prescriptions. His goal is to stay as healthy as possible and avoid major medical emergencies. He's had one before, he said, but at the time he had more comprehensive insurance.

"If I hadn't had that insurance, it would have ruined me," he said.

• If you've skipping the links so far, I don't blame you.

If you skip the one about a plane crash survivor, then you're a monster.

"It just means health to me," she said. "If I'm able to hike the Y, my body's good enough to live."

Who is she? CLICK ON THE DAMN LINK!

• No weekender from me. I failed at getting my head around a local option sales tax story. Sound boring? It's not. It's hilarious. If I can figure it out.

• And if none of that interests you (monster) then please enjoy the 10 levels of intimacy in the modern world.

New guy

Looking for a little violence-free transfer of power? (Assuming a health care reform meeting doesn't break out.) Here's the Senate Site stream of the Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert ceremony to amputate the "Lt." from his title.

Stream videos at Ustream

If you're not into ceremony and/or elected/appointed officials,

then freak yourself out with this huge meat-eating plant!

(Picture shamelessly stolen from the BBC.)

Monday Cup o' Joe [UPDATE: mea culpa]

• Joe's weekender is about the appointment process in Utah. Did you know that 30 percent of the Utah Senate and 20 percent of the House seats are currently filled by someone who was originally appointed? [UPDATE: "Chicago governor"? Sometimes you just blow it. This was one of those times for me.]

• Speaking of appointments, P&G at the Dnews run down the Greg Bell announcement. It's a pretty good primer, but I'm going to have to take exception to this:

The best mind in Utah politics is Chris Bleak, chief of staff to House Speaker Dave Clark. Within nanoseconds of the announcement from the White House of the Huntsman nomination for ambassador (and possibly before Herbert even knew of the appointment), this astute veteran predicted Bell would be selected.

Not because Bleak isn't a smart guy, but because everyone and their mothers predicted Bell out of the gate. The rest of the names were because the press was bored.

• Lisa Schnecker over at the Trib writes up that all charter schools may be getting some serious oversight. All Utah high schools are required to pass the Northwest accreditation but not elementary schools. Under a proposal by the state Board of Education, even charter elementary schools would have to get accreditation.

• So-Close-to-Gov.-He-Can-Taste-It Gary Herbert gets transitioned into the Big Seat tomorrow. Be in your little seats by 11:30 a.m.

(watermarked image courtesy of easyart.com)

Whatever mad skills you think you have...

... just give them up now and watch this and marvel.

Oh, and there's a garbage fire in Saratoga Springs, Utah lawmakers are No. 1 for visiting schools, and American Fork lost an appeal in the case of a man who allegedly attacked an AF High football player in a 2007 brawl.

Now, on to the madness!

Built in a garage. With glue.

Hey, the guy flies it a couple of times a week. Sounds safe enough. Up we go! (Video by iPhone)

Richard Teasdale does video up right for the Herald.

Monday Cup o' Joe

Thought I forgot about the weekly weekend roundup? While that may be mostly true, it isn't true today. To the links!

• From yours truly, Utah's Patrick Henry Caucus is putting together a bill that could end up as a constitutional amendment. Its purpose? To remove Utahns from federal health care requirements. Noble, in a state's right kind of way. But as the right honorable Mr. Speaker of the House says, good luck extricating Utah from federal strings already in place.

• Sen. Bob Bennett has raised lots and lots of money. (Did you know that "lots" isn't actually a word that can replace "a lot"? Also, notice that it's "a lot" not "alot." I'm pretty sure there's some messed up punctuation in all that, but the "lots" "a lot" commentary remains correct.) Oh, and Bennett raised a lot of money. Surprise.

• The only surprise bigger than that comes courtesy of the Dnews, which tells us, wait for it ... Mormons are conservative. You don't say. Of course, by conservative we're talking almost entirely about the moral side of things. (read: Amendment 3, abortions, etc.) When it comes to giving government money and taking it back, Utahns are right up there with the best of them.

• And the award for Best Got Ignored Insider Piece of the Week goes to ... the Salt Lake Tribune! Gov. Huntsman's legal counsel, Tani Downing, isn't coming back to work for About-to-be-Gov. Herbert. Downing is considered the no-nonsense heavy in Huntsman's inner circle. It may be a brief for the rest of the state, but that rushing wind you're hearing is a sigh of relief from the Legislature.

And if those don't interest you, check this funk out: The military has figured out health care reform! Instant repair of wounds.

(Pic courtesy of thesunblog.com)